Her Billionaire Lifeguard
Page 1
Her Billionaire Lifeguard
Vacation Billionaires
Sophia Summers
Contents
Read all books by Sophia Summers
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Read all books by Sophia Summers
Read all books by Sophia Summers
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Her Love and Marriage Brides Series
The Bride’s Secret
The Bride’s Cowboy
The Bride’s Billionaire
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Hitching the Pitcher
Falling for Centerfield
Charming the Shortstop
Snatching the Catcher
Flirting with First
Kissing on Third
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The Duke
The Duke’s Brother
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The American
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Her Billionaire Cowboy
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Her Billionaire in Hiding
Her Billionaire Christmas Secret
Her Billionaire to Remember
Her Single Holiday Romances
Taming Scrooge
Chapter 1
#hotTrey was everywhere.
One feature in Time Magazine was all it took.
His DMs were exploding with images of beautiful women.
And Trey hated every minute of it.
If it wasn’t such good press for his company, Trey Hemsworth would have cursed his business partner, Jake, and the dumb idea to agree to the spot in the top ten of Time Magazine’s most eligible billionaires. Sales were up and the additional exposure seemed like a good thing until photographers had been waiting outside their office when he left work. Their clientele were largely women. Their cosmetics company, Beauty Foundation, had benefitted, but Trey decided never to do such a thing again.
He thought he could just leave the country for awhile, but word had gotten out he was taking a vacation. He and his partners had changed location at the last minute and chosen an older “has-been” kind of resort in Cancun.
No one had followed.
Perfect.
The surf was high, and the water at Isla Mujere was clear for their scuba later this week.
He was just about to move his phone settings firmly to do not disturb, ready to leave this hotel room and get out on the beautiful water, when another call came through. Damian from Within Cosmetics. This guy oozed ruthless creep vibes. He took the call only because he had a huge respect for the founder of Within, Trevor Redding. “Trey here.”
“Oh, hi Trey. Good to hear your voice.”
“Hey thanks. Just on a little hiatus, what can I do for you real quick here before I hit the surf?”
“Oh right, ok, just wondering if you’ve given my proposal some thought.”
“I have, the team is going through some numbers. I’ll get back to you end of this week? How does that sound?”
“That’s cutting it close…no, you know what? That will be just fine. Thanks for giving it some thought. Marketing collaboration is the wave of the future. I’d like to see us surfing that one.”
Trey cringed. “MMM. Right, great. I’ll be in touch.”
He sent his finger swiping do not disturb. He was already late. He put his phone and laptop in the safe, grabbed his polarized lenses, and headed out the door. The open-air hallway filled with fresh, warm ocean breezes. He paused to catch the first peek of sun on the horizon. While he waited for the elevator, he watched the glowing light turn into a bright beacon announcing day.
As soon as his elevator opened on the beach level, he ran through the pool area and out to the sand.
They’d started joking with some of the staff yesterday and met one of the lifeguards. Great find. Miguel. Awesome local dude who had already filled them in with all kinds of local tips including where the surf was highest and best that morning, what time to come, and he offered to join them.
The guys were gathered at the lifeguard stand, with Miguel, down the beach. He kicked off his sandals and ran across the sand, leaving work further behind the faster he ran.
Out of the corner of his eye movement almost stopped him short. A woman stood at the edge of the water, long blonde hair waving out behind her. She raised her hands up to the sky, cupping them and bringing them back down to her front. She stretched to one side, accentuating her tight waist, then back again. She turned and faced her leg. Yoga pants, a sports bra, she was beautiful. His steps slowed and suddenly he wasn’t as anxious to get to his buddies. She turned to face him, stretching one arm behind her back, then the other. Her brilliant eyes sparkled at him, catching him in her gaze. He nodded, but she turned away, finishing her stretches in the other direction. The casual dismissal hit him with a force in his gut. He almost looked down to see if he’d worn a weird pair of shorts or if he’d grown a gut overnight. Finding nothing wrong, he was shaken by the woman who had zero interest in taking a second look. He glanced over his shoulder. Nope. Still not looking.
He shook his head and finally joined the guys.
“Ooh, checking out our yoga ice queen over there.” Miguel snickered.
Trey gave knocks to Jake, his partner and best friend. “Yeah, she didn’t even give me a once over.” He shook it off. “Are we here to surf or what?”
The waves were picking up.
Another guy from design had joined them. Cason. Each of them grabbed a board and followed Miguel out into the surf.
Trey was ready for the icy water he was used to in the California pacific but when he stepped in, it was pleasantly warm. Refreshing, but not biting. “Wooo!” He shouted to the air. “Let’s do this!”
He ran with his board, feeling the power of his thighs pushing through the water. He needed a solid workout. The resort fitness center didn’t have much by way of weights. At least he could get in some runs. Or better, he should get out here on the beach. Maybe he’d see yoga woman again if mornings were her thing. Maybe he could earn a second look.
A wave crashed in front of him, but he jumped through it, his board going over. Jake pulled up next to him. “This won’t be anything like Australia.”
He snorted. “No way. But I still plan to catch a few.”
“Oh yeah, we will. And the press will die down. We’ll get back to the good stuff.”
“The irony being we don’t want it to die down.” Trey pointed in his direction. “But next time, you’re the guinea pig.”
“I’d be happy to be the sacrificial lamb, girls all over me in every city of the world.”
“Except here, apparently.”
“Ooh, she got to you.”
“She was hot, dude. Didn’t even look twice.”
“Miguel doesn’t know how long she’s staying but she’s been here for three days alre
ady.”
“Remember what Mr. Redding used to say.” Their mentor, dear friend, and basic hero.
“Yes, be the kind of person that will attract what you’re looking for.” Jake frowned. “So you’re saying, she’s not into you which means you’re not cool enough?”
“Yeah, in this situation, that’s not making me feel any better.”
She spread a towel and was doing yoga contortions to their front.
“Nice.” He indicated her headstand. “That can’t be easy on the sand.”
“That’s impressive. And she can’t ignore us forever.” He laughed. “Let’s give her something to see.” He angled his board and started paddling. They had a killer set of three waves coming.
“You’re on.”
Trey was here to avoid women. He should be happy to have some time to himself. But his gaze strayed in her direction so many times he thought he’d go crazy.
And she didn’t even know he was alive.
Chapter 2
Scottie breathed, focusing on the rhythmic sounds of the waves crashing onto shore. She imagined a new piece for her studio. An anemone she had seen while diving. It was down in a crevice. She’d waited until no one else was down on that part of the reef and allowed herself to rest, floating with every rise and fall of the waves—the ocean equivalent of blending in. And slowly, things had started to appear.
She remembered the hypnotic rise and fall of her body underwater at the reef. Eels poked out their heads, watching for unsuspecting prey. Fish started to circle again; a ray floated overhead, blocking the sun for a moment. And what Scottie had most wanted to see, the anemones, opened their colors. One was so brilliant, she zoomed with her camera and snapped about a million images of it before a couple kicked closer and everything raced back into hiding. As she thought about it now, she became one with the rocking motion of all the living things around her, carried on the oceanic underwater swells. Her breathing quieted, her heart rate slowed.
“Epic, bro!!”
Scottie was jarred back to the present, away from her soothing meditation. She opened half an eye. The lifeguard convention or something. She’d seen them gather, each hotter than the last.
She closed her eyes again. She had come to heal.
“Plenty more where that came from. Race you back.” Ooh, handsome men running in the sand?
Healing could wait. Not able to resist a peek when she knew they wouldn’t be watching, she opened her eyes. Wow, that last one especially had everything. Tight muscles, broad, rippling shoulders, short crew cut, powerful arms holding the board as if it were weightless. He turned back to look over his shoulder, right at her. Caught staring. Their eyes met again. And he nodded. Again. Then turned back to the waves.
And a shiver of warm energy started at her toes and ran through her body, reaching every extremity. Wow. He was something, everything she loved about a man, or about the way he looked. Everyone out there surfing with him was hot. If she’d come here with old college roommates, they would have been all over that group. She closed her eyes and tried to regain her space.
But it was gone, and instead of happy underwater weightlessness, a replay of the man’s nod, his electric gaze, repeated itself over and over.
With a sigh, she pulled her legs in and sat cross-legged, resting back on her hands. A girl could look. Perhaps she would spend a minute and enjoy the show. She laughed when the only Mexican in the bunch tried to get two of the guys up on the board, but they fell over again and again, laughing and teasing each other. They seemed harmless enough. Maybe she could find a way to a platonic relationship with all of them. They were lifeguards. If they were going to be working the season together, perhaps they could keep it casual and fun. She was hotel staff too, technically. Good healthy relationships would be a blessing for her right now in her life. If these guys were those kinds of guys, she didn’t know.
The two beginning surfers gave up, dragging their boards up onto the sand. The other two actually looked like they knew what they were doing. They were farther out and she couldn’t tell the direction of their gaze, but one of them, the one with the electric gaze, said something to the other, and then they both looked in her direction, maybe. She held perfectly still even though they had no way of knowing she was watching them. One turned sharply and called to the other and they started paddling like crazy. A huge wave rose up behind them. Scottie cringed, not knowing if they’d make it, but their boards crested the top as it curled in a smooth wall, and they angled down onto the front. They seemed skilled. She didn’t know enough about it. But they were certainly better than their friends, who now body-surfed close to shore. They rode the foam all the way up to the sand. Electric Gaze turned his powerful eyes on her, but she let hers shift along the water as if she hadn’t noticed him or their epic ride. She flitted her gaze back to him when she thought surely he’d gone back out with his board, then sat up straight and opened her mouth.
He was marching toward her, a determined expression on his face. She could hardly avoid seeing him now. The closer he came, the more droplets on his tanned skin glistened in the sun, the definition of each pack in his six became more solid, his hair thicker. What was a girl to do with all this incredible hotness to her front? She leaned back, put her sunglasses up into her hair and smiled. “Nice surfing.”
His laugh rippled through her. “Oh, thanks. Just getting in some time with the guys.”
“It’s pretty early, but I imagine you’re on duty here in a couple hours, right?”
“On duty—”
The two guys who had given up on surfing ran up to join them, and Scottie laughed at their overexuberance.
They came to sit beside her. “Hey, I’m Cason.”
She shook the hand of dark-haired, handsome Cason.
His smile could have melted many a heart. But she could feel the first man staring, and just the awareness of him had melted her enough already.
She turned to Electric Gaze. “And I’m Scottie.”
He held out his hand. Its cool, firm strength cradled hers. “Trey.”
“I’m happy we met. I’m working here this summer too, and you guys seem like a good time, all in fun.” She felt her face heat and realized how brazen she sounded. “What I mean is, I’m here, you’re here. Let me know if you want to be friends.” She shrugged, then added, “And I would never have been so forward if you guys were, like, passing tourists or businessmen or anything. I don’t need that right now. But lifeguards, that’s about my speed.” She should stop talking. What had gotten into her?
The men shared glances, and Cason looked uncomfortable. “Well, we’re not—”
“All staying for the summer, but sure, that sounds great,” Trey cut in. “You can hang with the brothers. We can show you some local digs and hey, let’s all get dinner tonight.” Trey raised his eyebrows, waiting for her response.
“Sure, that’d be great.” She played it off as cool but really, his offer meant so much. Friends. She needed casual friends in her life. And this could be the start of just that, if she kept it casual. Eyeing Trey, she wasn’t sure she could manage casual, but she’d give it her best shot.
Chapter 3
“Excellent, okay, so we’ll meet in the front lobby at seven?”
Her smile. So she liked that idea. Wow, he’d have to think of more ways to bring that curled beauty back up across her lips. It lit everything. Her skin even seemed to glow when she smiled.
“Thank you. This means a lot. We can take my car if you want.”
He was about to wave his hand at that ridiculous suggestion, sure he’d rather go in the limo, but then he remembered lifeguards didn’t have limos. He nodded. “Great. Thanks.” He started to back away, indicting with his head the other guys should scat and then waved. “See you then.” He backed up a few more steps, just watching her, wondering what her face would do next but then realized he looked like a teenager, gawking at a pretty girl, so he turned around and tried to look cool again as he walked back fo
r his board.
Cason sidled up next to him. “What are you doing? You do know she thinks we’re lifeguards, right?”
“Yeah, but she was finally noticing me, or us. I didn’t want to ruin it.”
“Wow, so this is what Trey looks like when he’s desperate.” Cason punched him in the arm. “Is this the first woman you’ve met who wasn’t openly gawking at you?”
“What? No.” He thought about it for a minute. Was his determination growing because she’d been so obviously not checking him out? “I just don’t want to blow it. I’ll explain everything tonight. It’ll be funny and then surely she won’t be too unhappy I actually have my own car. And a nice one at that, right?”
Cason shrugged. “I don’t know. She doesn’t seem like the money-chasing type.”
He shook his head. “She’s fascinating. I guess we’ll find out tonight.”
“I guess so, but you better come clean ’cause I’m not gonna pretend to be a lifeguard the rest of our vacation.”
Trey snorted. “Come on. It’s time you learned to surf.”
They surfed the rest of the early morning hours. Trey noticed the moment Scottie stood to leave. He raised a hand, but she wasn’t looking. Again.
Jake laughed at him. “Wow, it’s like Cason said, you’re not used to this.”
“Neither are you.”
He frowned. “True. But it’s not bugging me as much as it is you. She’s under your skin.”